The End is Only The Beginning: Backwoods Brotherhood
by StephenMcTowelie
Summary: Daryl and his brother Merle struggle through the Georgia back country on their way to the supposed safe zone in Atlanta. TWD AU backstory set in the time frame of FTWD. Rated T for language, violence and Merle. Chapter 1 completed
1. Chapter 1

_**Author's Note:** This is the first and third chronologically of a set of TWD prequels I'm doing. This one follows the Dixon brothers from right around the end of Fear The Walking Dead season 1 up until the time in which Rick is brought back to camp. While I'm trying to stick close to the canon presented in the shows and the comics there will be a bit of an AU element to it. Though I am not following the events laid out in the game Survival Instinct that takes place over this same time frame there will be a few nods in the story to reference some of said events. I haven't really done any first person stories yet so I'm going to experiment in that direction by presenting this from Daryl's perspective. If it turns out to be garbage I can always rewrite it in the 3rd person. Should have the opening chapters for Carl and Michonnes backstory up sometime in the next couple months though I'm starting to lose interest in writing in general so it could be a while for me to get my mojo back. If these prequels turn out fairly good I might follow them up with a full blown TWD AU story running the course of all the seasons up to the current issue of the comics. _

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Chapter I

People ask me what I did before the world went to shit, what I was like back then. Turns out it was a lot like it was now. It was just me, wandering around with Merle fucking shit up. Wasn't going anywhere or doing anything with my life. Yeah I was pretty much on a one way street from fucked up to even more fucked up. I was going nowhere then, I'm going nowhere now. All that really changed when the dead started walking is that the stakes got raised. Before you make a mistake and you're on your ass or you spend some time behind bars; now if you slip up you're as good as dead.

We didn't see it here right away out in the sticks. We heard thinks, stuff city folk was seeing, back where there's more people stacked and packed on top of each other; stories of the dead walking, that kind of stuff. There was a report on the news sometime a couple years back of a woman that turned and ate her family while they slept. The police came and put her down and that was that. That was the first I reckon I heard anything like what we're seeing now. Folks just thought she was crazy, we never could've known what really happened, not until it was too late. It started with a few cases here and there, nothing major. The gub'ment did a pretty decent job keeping it contained, well as well as the gub'ment does anything without fucking it up. Then around last fall it started spreading. About five states saw breakouts in the major metropolitan areas and I'm sure other countries had their own shit to deal with. Early in the summertime everything hit a boil and people started dropping in droves from the sickness and turning into these things. There's only about one in ten folks I'd reckon that were immune to the airborne form of whatever the fuck causes folk to geek out. So when they all came back needless to say the whole world was up shit creek without a paddle. Within a couple months the world as we knew it was over, that's when we started to notice it out here in the boondocks. Ran into some of those fucks when we were out hunting. Walkers got my Pa, but me and Merle made sure that son of a bitch paid for what he did.

So me and Merle, we've been out here getting by, fighting the dead to give us some space and shit; it's just like fighting the living only they're slower and stupid as all hell. A few weeks after it all went down I've got fighting the dead down to a science. I'd like to say it gets easier but turns out it was never really hard in the first place. I didn't know any of them poor sons of bitches that got turned into rotters and shit. After a while you stop thinking of them as people. You kind of got to or that shit'll drive you mad in no time at all. In this world it was kill or be killed; ain't no mercy for the weak or faint of heart. That's just the cold hard reality of it. While I did what I had to to survive Merle seemed to enjoy killing a little bit, especially the black ones.

"Wheeew weeee! That's a big ol' coon right there!" Merle exclaimed as he slammed the clawed end of a claw hammer into the side of a dark skinned walker's skull.

Once it popped the brains up inside the thing went down. That's the trick with these guys, you got to nail them in the head. Whatever it is that is in the driver's seat once they turn it's all up in the head. Like the fuckers don't even need the rest of the body any more. Probably why those shits are all falling apart.

"Damn it Merle, stop playing around. I'd like to get this trailer cleared by sundown." I told him.

"Oh just hold your horses little brother. We gots all the time in the world. Ain't no rush." Merle brushed me off.

Merle placed his foot on the walker he had just killed and yanked out the hammer. I saw a walker coming around the back side of the trailer, used to be some junkie it looked like, probably cooked up meth in the kitchen when she was alive. Probably how she got the way she was now. It didn't matter now; she was gonna die again real soon. I shot an arrow from my crossbow straight between that toothless bitches eyes and she fell to the ground like a sack of potatoes. That's how I get it done; it's quick, clean and more elegant than ol' Merle and his bludgeons. Plus it's quiet, you gotta be quiet, noise attracts these things. Pop a gun off to get rid of one of them sons of bitches standing around and pretty soon you go fifty something of 'em coming at you.

I walked over, turned the dead bitch over and yanked my arrow out of her skull. I wiped it off with the rag in my pocket and set it back in my bow. Another one dead and dead for good. I swear I must have killed at least a hundred of these rat bastards since the day they got my Pa. No matter how many I kill it seems like they always keep coming though. Another one came out of the woods, I didn't get a good look at it before Merle went up beside it and bashed it's skull in.

"Can't have 'em all to yourself now can ya boy?" Merle teased me.

"Just keep your eyes moving." I stoically replied back to him in a low voice.

I sniped another walker tripping up through the underbrush. There was still noise in those bushes so when I went over to retrieve my arrow I drew my knife just in case one of those dumb bastards thinks it can get the better of me. Of course I needed it when some rotting old man in a flannel coat tries to take a bite out of my arm. Instead it got nothing but cold steel into the back of the head. There was another one back there, coming over from the next trailer down. It was a little girl, say seven or eight years old. This was the part I hated; when they were kids. I mean you know they're dead and all so you're gonna have to get 'em or they're gonna get you but damn man, having to knife a little girl like that is still a little something fucked up. I guess that's just what was left of the old world talking in me. I did what I had to do and got back to Merle who seemed to have finished clearing out the area of walkers.

The place we were in was a small clearing in the woods off a dirt road than ran a few miles down to the county road. It was well off the beaten path, not a whole lot of folks knew it was here. Only about four or five trailers were on these several acres the rest was all woodland. The people that lived here, hillbillies most likely had either turned or jumped ship by the time me and my brother showed up. Surprised these backwoods folk succumbed so easily; figured they would have been made of sterner stuff. Shit, me and Merle weren't much different, poor white trash from the sticks and we were holding our own jus' fine. I guess you can never guess who's gonna make it and who ain't.

"Let's git on in there and make ourselves comfortable." Merle invited me in.

Our home for the night was a single wide trailer home. It had paper thin corrugated steel walls painted a dull white, sullied from years of lackluster neglect. There were spots where the paint had had flaked off or peeled away leaving the underlying metal exposed to the elements. A few of these places had rusted over time and small holes, big enough for a cricket or a wasp to get through had formed in the weakened metal skin. There was a plastic tricycle in the yard and a couple of tires and rusted car parts strewn around the grass. Merle walked up the weathered wood steps leading to the trailer door and opened the outer screen door for me to get on through. I glanced down for a second at the gaping hole through the torn screen mesh and opened the inner door. There wasn't any noise coming from inside, usually a good sign cause walkers ain't bright enough to lie in wait like that. They were noisy sons of bitches, something that seemed to clump the fuckers together on occasion. Feeling sure of my senses I popped in and cleared the corners with my crossbow checking for any walkers that might be lying around inside. The living room/dining room combo was empty. There were dingy soiled couches and chairs and a coffee table cluttered with old pornographic magazines and TV guides. An overflowing ash tray sat on the center of said table with ash and cigarette butts scattered about around it.

I waved Merle in and checked the small bathroom and the second bedroom in the hall. Once again nothing but clutter and junk. Likewise the master bedroom was a mess but not a soul, living or dead stirred inside. We went around the place making sure all the windows were shut and locked then moved one of the couches in front of the front door wedging it shut in case walkers tried to push their way through during the night. With the shitty condition this place was in they were probably more likely to fall through the walls than they would force the door off its hinges.

Once we checked all the rooms and secured all the windows and doors Merle went into the master bedroom and plopped himself down on the bed, dingy dirt and guts covered boots and all. Lazy asshole was just gonna call it a day right then and there. My brother then looked up and over at me standing in the doorway watching him.

"Looks like the place is clear. How bout we get to cooking there buddy?" Merle said after a quick inspection of the dingy trailer. "Why don't you check the ol' pantry up there and rustle us up some grub." Merle told me.

I went into the kitchen and opened up the pantry door. Was slim pickins' inside; it wasn't like country folk not to stock up their cupboards. These folks probably took what they had and ran. Unless of course my junkie hypothesis holds in that case they probably never had jack shit to begin with. Traded all their food stamps for meth or somethin'. Found a shit ton of used up lighters in a drawer that seemed to validate that notion. So I took out a can of spam and a couple expired cans of beans. Spam, yep, we always knew that's the shit we'd be eating when the world ended and here we are. It didn't matter that we were stealing people's food. They were probably dead anyways; not like they were gonna eat it. If they were still walking around out there they'd have more of a hankering for man meat than they would a lousy can of spam and some baked beans. I opened the tops of the cans of beans with a rusty old can opener and used the pull tab to open up the spam. I pulled the dinged up trash can out from under the sink and filled it with garbage, paper, magazines, anything that would burn then soaked it in butane after filling up one of the empty lighters. After sparking up a fire i poured the beans and spam into a pan mixed all together and heated them up over the trash fire. This was as close to a home cooked meal as anyone was gonna get tonight. Tomorrow if the weather's good I'll go see about bagging a deer a couple possums and we can have some real meat. Today we just got swamped in dead heads running from our last home away from home and barely got out of there alive. I didn't hear anything outside this evening so I'd have to assume we lost them in the woods somewhere. Probably found some slower prey to go munch on. I'll tell you one thing me and Merle ain't gonna be no easy dinner.

Speaking of dinner I brought Merle back some of the slop I heated up along with a plate for myself. Naturally I took the greater portion for myself; I did make the shit after all. Before heading back I had stomped down the embers of my trash fire and made sure we weren't gonna roast tonight. Merle made a few wise ass remarks about my cooking while we ate. Me I preferred to remain in silence. Ain't no sense in making much noise if you ain't got shit to say.

In the silence between my brother's bellyaching I heard the screen door rattle in the gentle breeze. This place was literally falling apart and this was gonna be our fort for the night it would appear. It wasn't no castle but it's the best we could do for now. Better than being out there in the open if one of those passing freaks gets the midnight munchies. Besides this joint stank to high heaven, I'd hardly guess them walkers would be able to smell anything but shit 'round this place, let alone living flesh. Not like we had much of an option to move even if we wanted to; the sun was going down about now and them things be getting all sorts of ornery after dark. Best to move during the daylight. We'd cover a fair distance tomorrow if we didn't run into another herd like we did today. With any luck we'd get far enough out we wouldn't really have to worry 'bout no damn walkers. Less people around less walkers, makes sense doesn't it. Now in spite of this we heard the gub'ment had a safe place set up somewhere around Atlanta and my brother thought it'd be a nice idea to go and check it out at least before we settled on roaming around the sticks eating roast squirrel and coon the rest of our short lives. I'd be surprised if the place doesn't turn out to be a bust; first time Uncle Sam ever did something that didn't turn out to be all kinds of fucked up. Not counting on a miracle here, but we might as well have a destination if we're gonna be wandering about.

It'd be a while before we found out though. The way I reckoned we were off in southern Georgia somewhere near the Florida/South Carolina state lines and Atlanta is all the way up there in the north part of the state. We weren't exactly going in no straight line either. We went this way and that around the big ol' herds of walkers, sometimes digging in further south and going the wrong way from where we wanted. I guess tomorrow would tell us if we made it any further to where we were headed. The sun went down and the crickets came out filling the night air with their song. I used to thing them damn things were so annoying but hell, nowadays it sounded like sweet music to my ears. Sure as hell beats them walkers hissing and spitting up all over outside. This right here, this was nature's lullaby. Fucking Merle had already knocked out on the bed with me sitting on the floor leaning up against it facing the bedroom door. I'd be sleeping with one eye open tonight, any little sound or movement would jar myself back to alertness. That's how you have to sleep these days, you just can't let yourself go under, you always gotta be watching. Shit, it's light sleep but it's the only sleep a guy's gonna get if you want to avoid going under for the big sleep.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter II

Couldn't sleep worth shit that night. Kept hearing rustling in the weeds outside. There was a rustlin' through the tall grass, the snap of a branch and the cracklin' of the dry leaves. Occasionally something would bump into some of the junk tossed around about the clearing. There was definitely somethin' moving through the trees, could've been a raccoon, a possum or a god damned walker. The thought that it might be somethin' that could come a snackin' on us was what kept me up with my hands on by crossbow and bowie knife.

I guess you could say that the putrid smell the rat bastards that lived here before us left behind was actually kind of helpful. It smelled like the inside of a rotten asshole in this trailer; it smelled like death. Hopefully the dead wouldn't come a lookin' for the living in a place that reeked of the stench of death. I wasn't getting much of that snarling, hissing shit that the dead seemed to use as their mating call or whatever so that helped ease by nerves somewhat. Eventually I was able to go back to sleep, or what I called going back to sleep. What passed for rest was just me looking at the inside of my eyelids for a few minutes to an hour before opening them to take a look around. Never actually went under, no one was getting good sleep anymore, that was just the way it had to be.

Come morning I found Merle jacking around in the bathroom after his dumbass tripped over my legs and woke me up. I kinda didn't want to get up at first but once the brain gets firing and you start thinking of shit, especially the kind of shit that needs doing it's hard to get settled back down. So after a time of fighting it I eventually gave in and got up. First things first I might as well peek in on what my dumbass brother was up to. Merle had dug around in the bathroom drawers til he found what he was looking for. a ziploc bag filled with a half K of powder along with a used glass pipe with some leftover bits of amphetamines inside. My suspicions were on point, the people that lived here were fucking meth heads. Merle planned on chasing the dragon a little bit before going out to get chased by the dead. Wasn't really much reason to worry 'bout what that shit'll do to you when the average life span out there is just a few days anyways. I couldn't really complain so long as he didn't do something stupid that got us both killed. The coke might actually give him a pinch more focus come to think of it. So while Merle was on the couch getting bent I was outside scoping out the area and making sure it was cleared of walkers. A couple had stumbled into the little crescent shaped trailer park over the course of the night. Slow, stupid and easy as fuck to kill one by one I had no trouble jamming my knife into their brains and putting those god damned munchers down for the count. So long as you kept their numbers down there really wasn't much to worry about; it was when they started clumping together in large groups that they were really dangerous. By clearing the walkers out I was making sure that didn't happen. Afterwards I might as well go out and try to bag us some venison; I had time, Merle wasn't gonna be going anywhere for a while.

So I took my crossbow and went out into the woods. I had seen some deer tracks on the way over here so I assumed there would be at least one around, provided I could get to it before the dead did. That deer should be feeding us if it ain't gonna be running free; I sure as hell wouldn't want it feeding the walkers. I was pretty darn good at tracking shit without being noticed, been doing that shit ever since I was a little boy. My dad would take me and Merle out huntin' with him, half the time he was drunk off his ass and we had to make the shot for him but fuck it, we learned. I was a lot better at it than Merle so as expected I'm usually the one that had to go out there to bring us dinner. The tracks started to look fresh as I passed near a creek side glen; I had a good feeling about this. We certainly would be eating a better lunch than the slop we had for dinner last night. Merle had best be cleaning that junk ass grill outside while I'm out. Fucker should be able to move a brush back and forth even if he's high as fuck. I heard a noise in the bushes ten or twenty yards out on the other side of the creek so I hid behind a group of trees and waited. Either this was my deer or another walker; both would get shot but only one we'd be able to eat. Luckily it was the tastier of the two options. The deer, a fine specimen of a buck briskly walked out of the bushes and meandered down to the creek. I took my aim as it leaned down to take a drink. The little bit of noise I made startled it enough to make it raise its head and look around but didn't spook it enough to cause it to run away. I let loose with the arrow which struck the deer between the eyes. I had gotten damn good with the head shots thanks to the walkers. It was almost second nature by now; all of that center mass stuff had gone out the window with the end of the world. The deer managed to take a few strides away before it crumpled into a neat little pile.

The sound of the deer being dropped had rung the dinner bell for a very unwelcome guest. A walker, formerly some dude in jeans and ranch hand attire, snarled into the scene as if out of nowhere. Probably was there all along I was just too zeroed in on the deer to notice. That wasn't a good thing; one had to keep their heads about themselves at all times. Let something in your blind spot just once and you weren't going to get the chance to live to regret it. Back to the matter at hand, the walker was after my deer. Oh hell no! I had not wasted an arrow so some fucking dead head can get a free lunch. I let loose an arrow once I had hopped to the other side of the creek. The arrow literally went in one ear and out the other of the slimy dead guy, bringing him down a couple feet away from my deer. I quickly ran over and dragged my deer away from the corpse before it could stink it up with its bloody bile leaking onto the ground. After I got my deer away I pulled out the arrows from it and the walker. Right after I got the last arrow out the walker another one of those things thought it was slick, assuming the devils can think, and came up behind me. Hadn't had a chance to put my arrow away yet so I twisted around and jammed the arrow into the walker's eye. That seemed to do the trick after I thrust it in and twisted it to the side to scramble its brains. I yanked it out, wiped it off and stashed it back in its quiver. There was more growling and hissing in the woods; god damned motherfuckers, this was my deer, my lunch and they weren't getting it. I dragged the deer back and out of the way of the oncoming walkers and move forward ready to fight. Over my dead body, I thought to myself as I drew my hunting knife and jammed it above the nose of the first walker to come out of them there bushes. Over my dead body, that was probably the idea. Another came at me from the side, and then another from the other side. I turned and dispatched the walker ahead of me just as three more came out of the woods behind me to join the other one. Yet another stumbled through the tree branches to my right and forced me to stab it multiple times until I managed to get that blade up in those brains and scramble them up. By that time two of the other four walkers were upon me. I could feel their breath against my neck; their hissing, growling and gnashing of teeth were terrifyingly close. I started to turn around but they were so close I expected to get bit, just a little before I got around to fighting them off. Just a little was all it took though; as a fifth walker bumbled about through the trees and into the clearing I could feel it closing it, the inevitable fact that I was about to become one of them.

I felt a warm sensation on my neck but it wasn't a bite. The sensation was accompanied by a loud popping sound and spread from my neck down my back and into my hair on the sides and back of my head. I turned around to see the second walker's head burst open in time with another pop which I recognized now as a gunshot. Blood and the internal fluids of the dead now spattered onto my face and chest. I looked past the walker to the shooter as the dead man dropped. It was my brother, the son of a bitch popped off the remaining three zombies one at a time. That asshole was high as fuck but could still drop walkers from across the creek. I tried to go for the last one but Merle cracked its head like an egg before my knife could get in there.

"What the fuck you think you're doing Merle?" I asked him.

"Saving your ass lil' brother what does it look like." Merle replied leaning the rifle up against his right hip and smiling with a cigarette clenched between his teeth.

"Don't you know that gunshots draw more of them? Shit, we're going to be swimming in roamers in no time." I complained. It wasn't that I was ungrateful it was just that Merle didn't think that far ahead when he came to my aid. He could have found a way to do it more quietly I thought. Still I shouldn't be a dick; he did just save my sorry ass.

"Relax lil' brother. I think we done up and cleared out the neighborhood 'round here. Ain't got nothing to worry about." Merle said to calm me down.

He then looked over all the dead walkers and my buck lying there at the creek side still untouched by the dead. "Looks like all the trailer trash is out for a Bar B Q." Merle sarcastically remarked.

"Get yourself cleaned up and bring this pretty boy back to camp. I'll get the coals fired up." Merle instructed me.

In any normal situation I would demand that his lazy ass help out but this time, seeing as he kept me out of the undead club for a little while longer I might as well oblige his asshole demands. I owed my brother one and fuck it, better to pay it up front than to have a debt called in later. So I washed all the filth and grime the dead had left behind on me in the creek and then hefted the deer across it, being careful to avoid the dead and cross upstream of where I had washed off at. Then I headed back to camp where me and Merle would sit down, eat us some good backwoods Bar B Q and then get on our way down towards Atlanta town.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter III:

After cooking ourselves a fat slab of fire roasted venison me and Merle sat down for one heavy ass well deserved lunch. Been a few days since either of us had some real meat so it was hella good going down. Satisfyin' too, none of this bland as fuck canned shit we've been eating on the road. I could tell Merle was still coked outta his gourd but he was comin' down and well after all that happened bagging us this here buck it'd be best if he laid off the shit til we got somewhere safer.

"Got ourself way more meat than we know what to do with on this one better take your fill while we can." Merle remarked seeing me snarf it down.

"Shit, when we're done we could hang this shit up to dry, cure it and we'll have provisions for weeks." I suggested.

Merle laughed as he tore into the roasted meat. I wasn't sayin' we stick around this bum fuck trailer park or anything jus' that we leave the meat here to cure and come back around to pick it up later on when we need a bite. Wasn't like pops and I didn't make jerky outta some of the meat we hunted so I sure as hell knew how to do it. once we had it ready we could pack it up then take it with us on the road to Atlanta; sure as hell would save us time foraging for vittles up and down all over the place.

"Y'ain't gonna make jerky outta this lil' brother. God damn roamers'll come around here and tear that meat right off the hooks." Merle shot down my idea.

I didn't think of that at first, lousy dead head motherfuckers would smell the shit and then come a lookin for it. Human beings usually can't smell worth shit but bring 'em back from the grave and all the sudden they got noses like a hound dog.

"Not if ya put it away and watch it." I replied.

"Ain't nobody got time to be babysitting your meat!" Merle laughed.

Just then I saw a walker stumble out from behind the far end of the trailer and start lumbering towards Merle, the dumbass being totally oblivious to the danger.

"Whoa whoa, easy there boy. Let's not get all cuckoo over this." Merle said with his hands up as I reached for my crossbow presuming I was mad at him for something.

I picked up my crossbow and fired an arrow over Merle's shoulder striking the flannel clad walker above the right eyebrow, dropping him in his tracks.

Merle and I got up, my brother looking back at my kill in amazement.

"Well I'll be fucked in the ass. Thanks for keeping an eye out lil' brother." Merle remarked.

A symphony of snarling wheezing shit noises started to pick up coming from my right side and behind Merle, downwind from the top of the hill. The smell of the Bar B Q had drawn in some unwelcome guests and soon the trailer park was swarming in roamers. Merle leaned down and picked up his gun and a hatchet he had used to help carve meat outta the buck. I leaned down and picked up my knife lying on the ground beside the grill as well before I crept over to the slain carcass and removed my arrow. Merle being a dumbass fired off a shot at a female walker tripping out of the bushes while I was grabbing my shit. Could've thanked him for covering me but all he really did was attract more of the bastards towards us. Three more of them fellers that were mindin' their own business turned towards the trailer park with the sound of the gunshot while I spun around and drove my knife into the temple of another one sneaking up behind me. Merle popped off another shot then picked up a ball peen hammer lying around amidst the broke down cars and junk so common on the front lawns of these kinds of trailer parks. Holding the rifle in his left hand with his right he slammed the hammer into the side of a walker's head then pulled back and cracked it back down on top of its head. The walker's skull split sending blood and brain juice spraying up into the air, a sight that gave my brother quite a rush.

"Woooo! This one's a squirter lil' bro!" Merle cried out gleefully.

I let loose another arrow at a shaggy looking walker sporting some long dreads wagging side to side as it lumbered into camp by the tree line. Damn it! I was off just a tad and when the motherfucker swayed to the left in its little rhythm it had going my arrow passed right by him and stuck into a tree trunk behind it.

"What's wrong boy! Why can't you hit that nigga?" Merle mocked me before cleaving the face off what had been some young white trash kid coming through the yard.

"Shut the fuck up Merle!" was all I could think to respond with before I fired another arrow this time striking the walker in the shoulder.

"God damn it, enough with this shit!" I grumbled as I slung my crossbow over my back and charged at the walker with my knife.

I was hitting shit with Merle back there cawing at everything he sees. If I had to get right up in this fuckers face to take him out that's sure as hell what I was gonna do. A knife through the nose did what two arrows failed to do. The walker was reaching for me, flailing its arms trying to grab me before it stopped moving and I kicked it back onto its twice dead ass. It's surprising how these things retain their strength even after they've been dead awhile. All them science books would've told ya that their muscles would've started to rot away by now and leave these motherfuckers weak and puny against us but fuck this was just like going up a burly ass grown man I thought as I struggled with some flannel clad fat ass that was the next bugger in line. Strong as they might have stayed they were nothing but stupid and fuck, stupid always loses to me. I sure as hell showed that when I let tubby over here fall flat on his face and instead of taking a bite of Daryl Dixon he got a mouthful of dirt only to be joined by my knife to the back of his head.

I quickly retrieved my two arrows and dispatched another pair of walkers coming out of the woods. Merle had his hands full too, though it looked like he was fighting little kids compared to the freaks that were coming after me.

"I'm thinking we gonna have to git gone lil brother!" Merle shouted, noticing that the walkers were not going to quit coming anytime soon. If anything there seemed to be more of them popping up from the woods ahead of me and to my right hand side. It was like we were on the leading edge of a shit smelling formerly human shitstorm full of shit comin' our way.

"No shit!" I replied.

We didn't have to say much. It was understood between us that we were bugging out of there. We made a hasty retreat down the hill, snatching up what we could along the way and fighting off the ones that got too close. Once we got onto the road we quickened our pace, got past a couple walkers ambling along there until we hopped over a fallen tree along our path. That oughta slow those dumb fucks down just a little. I stopped Merle from firing off another round at the scattered band of pursuing walkers. Not all of them had given chase and the ones that did were a little ways off. I thought it best just to keep moving.

"Put it down." I said grabbing the underside of the barrel and pulling the gun down. "You'll just attract more of 'em over here. I thought we trying to get away right?" I told my brother.

His face went from a displeased scowl to a big toothy grin. "Ahhh, I getchu brother!" he said before tousling my hair with his left hand. "That's why mama always called you the smart one now isn't it." Merle laughed.

With that we were back on the run. We cut through the woods, went this way and that until we were finally clear of the herd. We were in a small clearing in the woods. There were a couple of dead walkers on the ground along with a handful of dead, thoroughly munched on animals. There were also people, two men, and older woman and one little boy that seemed too fresh to have turned. They were all chewed up pretty damn good. One of the men and the woman had gunshot wounds to the forehead while the second man, found holding a revolver in his hand had apparently ate a bullet to do himself in. The kid was lucky they went for the face, no bullet holes though. Well, I thought, he didn't have to suffer coming back as one of those things. Well, he had to suffer but only for a little while I suppose. I didn't really feel sad for the little guy, yeah it might have sucked, hurt like hell too to have your face eaten off but that's the world we live in now. You can't be soft and expect to survive. Not that seeing shit like this would've affected me before but it really don't move me at all now. I guess a piece of shit like me is the kind of man that lasts in this world. That's some funny shit.

"Looks like the munchers done on left the buffet." Merle remarked.

He bent down and took the gun out of the hand of the dead man and checked his body for any more bullets. When he found none he stood up, popped the gun open and saw there were two rounds still in it. They could've popped the child but chose not to. I suppose that was nice for us, a couple scavenging assholes that happened to come upon their camp in the woods.

Now Merle was just standing around playing with his new gun like a dumbass. Fucker probably still had enough coke in his system to not give a damn about what we were gonna do next.

"Merle, Merle." I said snapping my fingers in front of his face.

"Why I oughta. . ." Merle snapped at me and grabbed my wrist to get my hand out of his face. "What?" he asked in an annoyed tone.

"You think we might wanna, well do something?" I asked. We had been here in the clearing more than long enough to catch our breath and well we weren't that far from the herd.

"Do what?" Merle asked.

"Can you really be that dumb?" I quipped.

"Now look here, what we need to do is to get further away from Savannah instead of wanderin' in circles out here. All them walkers over in the big town'll eventually start wandering this way once they run out of living ones to eat over there." I suggested.

"Atlanta's a big town too and they say it's doing nicely right now." Merle corrected me.

"Only cause they got the army out there keeping the freaks out." I retorted. "Savannah ain't got no such luck." I told him.

"Shit if it's the backwoods that's the best place to hide how 'bout we just hole up somewhere in the sticks? A lot less of a walk that getting all the way to Atlanta I'd say." Merle asked.

"We ain't gonna give up now. Ain't sayin' we stay there jus' that it's worth a look." I added.

"If Atlanta falls through we can run to the hills out towards Alabama and just ride out our days in hick country like we always have. Shit man, I'd like to try and go for something better, just on the off chance that Atlanta really is as safe as they claim it to be." I explained.

"Sure beats fightin' off the munchers for scraps every damn time we want to have a home cooked meal." I complained, kicking a half-eaten deer carcass on the ground about half the size of the buck I had left back in camp. This one was just a kid but fuck it was picked clean by those, those things.

So we left the clearing and wandered through the woods for about an hour, avoiding whatever walkers we saw. Merle kept his loud ass trap shut and I kept my eyes peeled for the both of us. We walked down from the woods and got onto the highway. The thing looked like a still frame of a statewide evacuation during hurricane season. Four lanes about to merge down to two a ways down from a fork in the road all left abandoned in total gridlock.

I saw the signage posted on the side of the road and got all pissed at myself. Turns out we had been going in the wrong direction and were actually heading north towards Savannah instead of away. The sky was overcast and I'd just followed Merle who claimed he knew the way to get back on the highway. Should've known better than to trust Merle's navigation skills when he was still high as a kite from earlier. well fuck it, I couldn't tell, Merle was always a bit off his rocker so I never could tell if he was blazed still or not.

"You dumb son of a bitch!" I griped. "You've been leading us the wrong way this whole time!" I chastised Merle angrily.

"Watch yourself boy, that bitch is your mama too." Merle laughed it off.

"Well fuck us then. There's a whole god damned mess of those things up there and we'll never get far enough away before sundown." I griped.

"Ain't getting away from them herds on foot that's right. We gotta get ourselves somethin' faster. Then we can skedaddle on our way and be right as rain before it gets all dark out." Merle corrected me.

"Lookie over there, think they start?" Merle asked pointing off into the still, silent traffic.

Merle pointed out two bikes left abandoned in the midst of the traffic jam. Well I'll be, for once Merle was using his noggin for something useful. While we weren't gonna get anywhere in a car with how packed in all this shit was these here bikes could weave in and out of the narrow lanes between the four wheelers we'd be on our way. Now Merle having given himself the choice pick immediately went to the brand new shiny ass Honda that was lookin' untouched by human hands. That left me the bike next to it with a twice dead fat fuck slumped over the front of it. It was an old chopper, rusted in places but overall a nice custom job. A fine piece of American steel that even in its crusty ass shaped could run circles around Merle little rice rocket. The guy on top of it was a different story. This dude stunk like high heaven. His morbidly obese corpse was stuffed into a leather vest and chaps three sizes too small for him leaving a rotund gut with fat rolls overlapping fat rolls hanging out from under his shirt. He had at least eight chins covering up the scars on his neck where he had been bitten. Yeah it was gross to look at but so was the whole god damned world. Was I some prissy little bitch that wouldn't take a ride just cause this greasy turd was on it? Fuck no!

"I'll take this one. You can have the one the big fat rotter's sitting on." Merle told me as he sat down on the metallic blue polished motorcycle and pointed me to the other one.

It didn't bother me; this bike was still more than I could've had back in the day. All custom work with some skulls and the SS symbol painted onto the sides, something that would be more to Merle's liking but still, this bitch was mine. The guy on it had blown his brains out with a shotgun and was now food for the flies. Boy there were a lot of those buzzing bastards too, fucker was covered in flies, so much so that they came off like a cloud when I shoved that sad sack of shit off his ride out onto the street.

"I don't give a shit Merle. This chopper's one sweet ride." I rebutted him.

"'Cept it smells like shit." Merle laughed.

"Walker repellent. They ain't gonna want to eat me if I got the stank of week old meat left bakin' out in the hot sun." I reasoned.

It was as good a line of reasoning as any. Ya never saw them walkers taking a bite out of each other. Once shit got to smellin too dead they left it alone. The dead got a thing for live meat I suppose. Now whether this stanky ass bike would keep the walkers away was yet to be seen.

"Whaddya know? Sum'bitch still starts." I remarked as I fired up the engine. The spattering of dull manly roars from the bike was like music to my ears.

"Same here. Purrs like a kitten." Merle merrily exclaimed.

"Shit Merle, the way yours sounds makes you the bitch." I joked. Merle's was a hell of a lot quieter than mine, a little pussy ass whinny as opposed to the big boy rumbling of my engine. What do you expect for a chink-made machine. Fuck, it had its advantages though; less noise to draw out the walkers for one. So from a pragmatic standpoint it wasn't so lame but fuck it if I wasn't gonna rub it in Merle's face.

"Oh fuck off!" Merle laughed me off.

"How are you on gas?" Merle asked, changing the subject.

"Half a tank, I'm good. How's your little bitch ass chinkmobile doing?" I replied.

"She's a little over sucking fumes." Merle replied.

"Well then let's find us a hose and you can suck some gas out of these cars round here?" I suggested.

The sound of walkers coming out of the woods put that idea to rest. The god damned herd had followed us.

"Shit! We'll get ya some gas later on. Let's go!" I told Merle.

He didn't need much convincing. We both sped off down the road winding through all the cars and dead bodies to get away from the bodies still moving at our six. First thing we had to do was lose the lame brains, next we'd get Merle some rice for his rice rocket. Plenty of small towns down this road we could stop at; it shouldn't be a big deal. For now we'd be safe once we got away, at least that's what I tell myself.


End file.
